Tale #116: The Mall Brat (Part 1)

Tale #116: The Mall Brat (Part 1) (A sequel to 'Paradigm Shift') (Content Tags: Poopy Goodnite, reality warping, role reversal, public humiliation, diaper check) Dirty, shit-packed Goodnites stuck to my ass and hot, wet tears in my eyes. That was the predicament I was in. Being mocked and teased by the friends I had once considered close, who now saw me as nothing more than an obnoxious little dork. It was the exact same scenario that I'd let Lee wallow in, when the shoe was on the other foot. I was the autistic little geek that liked stupid kid stuff now. I was the bedwetter, pantswetter, and apparently pantspooper now too. I was the one that would be crying in the food court as my pants got yanked down and my mucky Pull-Up was unnecessarily probed to determine the state of it. Lee had gotten back to the table. Lee, the dorky grade-schooler that'd become a teenager, when we'd swapped roles. The same Lee that was no longer a dork, and who looked at me with the same scornful look that I'd given him. The same Lee that was already fed up with his 'retard stepbrother'. "Alright, I got you a burger and some fries. I got you water instead of a soda, because I don't need you--" He'd been explaining what he brought back when he realized how forlorn I looked and how amused his friends were. "--What's the matter? Why do you look like you're going to cry?" The other two teens looked at me, as if expecting me to be forthcoming with what they suspected had happened. My bowel movement had been relatively silent in the cacophony of the mall's food court, but the smell had become a little too loud to excuse as gas. They were convinced that I'd soiled myself like an infant, and they weren't at all wrong in that assumption. I didn't say anything. Finally, one of the teens spoke up: "I think the little dude shit himself. He reeks." It was blunt, but not untrue. It was crude, but not necessarily malicious. Kevin was the more mature of the two, and he seemed to genuinely take my inherited 'autism' into account. He was amused, but not mean-spirited like his friend. "It's fuckin' gross. Why'd you get stuck on tard-wrangling duty anyway?" And then there was Jacob, the meathead that was never afraid to speak his mind. Being on the receiving end of his derision, I had to wonder why I'd been friends with him for so long. "My mom was hassling me about bringing him along. That's not what seriously happened though, right? Kenny, did you really crap yourself?" Lee looked to be barely holding back the double-barreled strike of anger and embarrassment. I couldn't admit to the deed. The smelly, smoldering proof was grossly clinging to my now itty-bitty buttcheeks, but my pride was too strong to confess. Instead, I quietly shook my head and looked away. "Yeah? That's not what my friends seem to think. Stand up." "B-but..." "I said to stand up. I swear to god if you crapped in your Pull-Ups, I'm going to be pissed." Lee still sounded like he didn't want to believe it. Like he didn't want to think that his dorky autist stepbrother was so bad as to helplessly squeeze a turd out into his pants. It was embarrassing enough to him that I pissed the bed and then my pants. That feeling of hating the association was something I was very familiar with, since this scene had played out just yesterday for me, but from the other perspective. I was stalling too long and he lost his patience. Aggressively, the teenager grabbed me by my arm and forced me onto my feet. The smell around me was more pungent, since the Goodnite was woefully inadequate to contain the odor of a BM. His nose wrinkled, and that should have been the end of it, but he was too worked up now. "Last chance, Kenny. You really going to stick to your story on this? You sure stink like you crapped in those training pants. I was led to believe that you weren't so retarded that you'd be doing something like that." The shame was overwhelming and I just shut down. My face was red and tears were beginning to roll down my chubby cheeks. I couldn't answer him. "Nothing, huh? Well, why don't we take a look?" Lee could have simply pulled the waistband of the Goodnites out to check the cleanliness status of my rump, but he didn't. He pulled my cargo pants all the way down to my ankles, right in the middle of the packed food court, as if he was just checking a toddler. My Goodnite had a subtle sag in the back, and small brown stains had begun to accumulate around the leg gathers. "Looks a little gross back here, Kenny? Does it feel gross? Like you made a big icky oopsie?" Lee mocked me with baby talk, while he suddenly grabbed the seat of the squishy garment and roughly kneaded the material with his fingers. "I-I din't...I.." My voice was shaking like a leaf in the wind; there was no confidence of conviction toward what I was saying. It wasn't some big secret to me that I had a mudbutt, and now it wouldn't be a secret to anyone else in the food court either. "I thought it was bad enough that you were pissing yourself. You're in fifth grade for Christ's sake." He stopped gripping at the seat and hooked his finger on the waistband of the smelly Goodnite. Cool air hit the crook of my back and I realized that he was actually peeling things back to take a real look. It was wholly unnecessary at this point for any pragmatic purpose, but this was about punishment. "Ugh...That's a nasty thing you did in these. I'm going to have to call your dad and tell him to come pick your stinky ass up. There's no way I'm wiping your butt for you and you're not getting in my car with shit in your pants." Lee growled as he let the waistband snap back into place. "Go ahead and eat your stupid burger. Go sit alone, where I can still see you. No sense in letting it go to waste." My face was a mess of tears and even a little bit of snot from my hysterics. It was mortifying what I'd done, but my emotional regulation also felt totally shot. I'd made fun of Lee for being a crybaby, but now I was in his velcro shoes. With a loud sniffle, I pulled my pants back up and picked up the tray of food. I'd be eating by myself, as to not offend anyone's nostrils. There was a subtle squelch when I sat back down and I could feel the warm load oozing up the back of my crack. The napkins helped to dry my face, but I couldn't stop the sullen sniffling, even as I started to eat. It was hard to enjoy the food, for a multitude of fairly obvious reasons, but I still managed to choke it all down. Eventually, after a phone call with our parents, my stepbrother came over and frowned down at me. "They're too busy to come get your ass. My mom told me to 'handle it' however I can." Lee sounded irritated for the most part, which was understandable, since that'd been me yesterday. From his perspective, I was the whiny autist that'd crashed his 'chill sesh' with his friends and now I'd further complicated his babysitter role by taking a dump in my pants. It was gross and Lee wasn't well-versed in changing what was effectively a poopy Pull-Up, especially off of an eleven year old boy. "I'm not changing you. You're old enough to wipe your own ass. You might be semi-retarded or whatever, but you're still capable of the bare minimum; except for using the frickin' toilet, I guess." Lee sneered down at me. "I'll take you to a store where you can get some baby wipes, and then you're on your own." It wasn't immediately obvious where in the mall would be a good choice to find such an item. Fortunately, Lee dragged me over to the directory to take a look. If things were going to end similarly to yesterday, then Lee would be taking me to the far end of the mall, where there was a small pharmacy. That would mean getting put into a real diaper. It was almost enough to put me back into hysterics. My pride was already bruised badly, but being diapered would be like a gunshot! Was this how miserable that Lee had felt yesterday, when I'd made him put one on? The walk to the pharmacy was like a death march, or waddle, to the gallows. Lee hadn't used the 'D' word yet, but I knew that they'd be coming. There's no way he would have taken me all the way to the other side of the mall for just baby wipes. My former friends were still cackling and cracking jokes at my expense. "Look at how he's walking all funny. Just like a giant toddler with full pants." "It's so gross, dude. I'm glad my little brother doesn't shit his pants anymore." Lee scoffed, "Yeah, well, I wish mine didn't. He probably does it all the time and this is just the first time he's done it in front of me. I only started living with the twerp a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't exactly been trying to hang with him. His dad said he's autistic or whatever, but I thought that just meant he liked trains or Sonic, or whatever. I didn't think it meant that he would piss himself or take a big dump in his pants." I searched my memories and tried to figure out whether I could look into my own disfigured past. In this alternate universe, I was like Lee, except the immaturity of the condition was far more pronounced. That meant I should be able to recall moments from this version of my life, but it was all a blank. It was disorienting, to only have my original memories, when I wasn't allowed to be that person. As it was, I was made to live a life that I couldn't understand the history of. Maybe Lee was right; maybe this version of me was a total mudbutt, and it had been inevitable that I'd mess myself like a big, dumb baby. After all, I had those same theories about Lee; that he pooped himself more often than his mother had let on, and that it was only by providence that he'd avoided it the first couple of weeks. "Alright, let's see what we can find. My mom said she'd pay me back if I had to buy him new pants or anything." Lee said, tugging me sternly into the mouth of the pharmacy. "We passed like four different clothing stores on the way here. I don't think a place like this will have pants, dude." Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Besides, I don't think any of it actually went in his pants. It's all in the Pull-Up." I had to stop myself from correcting him and saying it was a 'Goodnite'; the distinction wouldn't have made it seem any more mature than what the garment truly was. A Goodnite was to wear at night, to pee inside; not for a daytime pantload, which a Pull-Up was indeed more appropriate. "Yeah, I'm not getting him new pants. I'm also not letting him just go commando around the mall. We still need to go get that game, and I don't want him leaving a puddle or worse." "Oh. So you're going to get him another Pull-Up?" Lee glanced back at me, "After he just pooped himself? Nah, I think the little moron needs something meant for that. You know what I'm talking about, Kenny?" I hung my head, the sniffling coming back with a vengeance. "D-diapers..." "Oh, good. You're not as stupid as I thought. Yeah, I think that we'll have to find you a big, thick diaper to wear. Something that won't leak in my car and mess up the seats." The two other teens burst into laughter and I burst into tears. Lee didn't care, only pulling me further into the store. A couple of minutes later and he'd gotten me onto the diaper aisle, which was only familiar because I'd brought Lee to this same spot yesterday. I watched as he traced his finger across the many options, narrowing it down to something that would actually fit me. After a couple of minutes of deliberation, he grabbed a package off of the shelf. "These look fine. Sorry they don't have any little cartoons or whatever, like you're used to your little baby undies having." Lee grabbed some wipes too, but didn't bother to get any powder. Even if he was getting reimbursed, he didn't want to break the bank, since he still needed to pick up his game. He shoved the package of diapers into my hand and pointed a finger toward the checkout: "You're going to go pay for these, and you're going to ask the nice lady where the nearest bathroom is, so you can change your poopy pants." He put a crisp twenty on top of the diapers. He just wanted to humiliate me at this point. He could have gone to pay for them, without ever mentioning the reason why, but he wanted to make me suffer. My accident had ruined his afternoon, and he wanted to make damn sure it ruined mine too. Slowly, I paced my way toward the checkout lane and got into the short line. The person ahead of me, an old crone, got a repulsed look on her face whenever she caught wind of my dirtied seat. She took one look at the diapers I was carrying and silently shook her head, as if she couldn't believe what kids were like now. When it was my turn, I put the diapers and the wipes on the counter. My face was still red, and my eyes were still pink and puffy from crying so much; she gave me a sympathetic look, but didn't seem to connect the dots of my sorrow and my purchase. "Some wipes and the diapers, that'll come out to sixteen-twenty." I handed over the bill, "Umm...Can you tell me where the bathrooms are?" As she started to make change, she took another look at the diapers and realized that they must be just my size. She looked at me with some curiosity, "Not far from here. Just take a right when you leave and walk for a minute or two." Lee, who must have been eavesdropping, suddenly came up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. "Did you ask her where you can get your stinky Pull-Up changed?" Any benefit of the doubt that I'd been given was suddenly gone. The young woman cringed visibly, but kept her demeanor professional. She slid the change over on the counter, "Yeah, I let him know where the little boy's room was. I don't know if the changing tables are big enough for...An 'older' child, though." Lee slipped the bills back into his wallet, "That's okay. My baby brother will just have to stand and get cleaned up." My eyes dipped down to the floor again, at least until Lee was prodding me to pick up my bag, which I begrudgingly did. He then took my hand again and we were back out into the mall, though I'd felt the clerk's eyes on me as I waddled out; she probably wanted to see if it was obvious that I'd soiled myself. "...I don't know how to do this." Were some of the first words out my mouth in a while. "Which part? Wiping your butt or putting the diaper on?" On the first matter, I found it a little intimidating to clean myself up. This was a big load, and Lee had already smeared it pretty badly across my buttcheeks. It'd take a while to handle myself, and in a public bathroom no less! On the second matter, I was genuinely clueless; I'd never had to change a diaper before, so I had no idea how to tape it on correctly. "The...Diaper part." I replied with a meek shrug. Lee grimaced and looked like he was mulling over how long this might take. "Seriously? You don't think you can figure it out?" Kevin interjected, "I've had to change my brother before. I can help him out." "You sure, dude?" Lee looked surprised. "Yeah, man. You really want to wipe some short-bus kid's ass for him? I say if he can't take care of his own business, then he should just put some of those diapers on over his shitty pants. Keep the smell contained, at least." Jacob folded his arms. "Nah, he'll get a rash like that. It'll take fucking forever if we just leave him to take care of it himself, and I got other plans today. It'll just be like changing a really big baby." Lee chucked up a shrug of his own, "Fine, have at it. Maybe I can let my folks know that you're down to babysit too." "Let's not go too far." The trio of teens talked to eachother about me as if I wasn't even there. At no point was my own input asked for or considered. By the end of the discussion, Kevin was leading the charge into the boy's room, and I was simply expected to follow. With my options so drastically limited, I did follow.